Fuel cells are well known to those skilled in the art; see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,105 (the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification) and the publications and patents cited therein.
To the best of applicants' knowledge, no one has described a system for continuously using a fuel cell and storing the output therefrom.
In an article by Yasuhara Ohsawa et al., entitled "Studies on Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage for Photovoltaic Power Generation" (International Symposium on New Developments in Applied Superconductivity, Suita, Osaka, Japan, Oct. 17-19, 1988, pages 628-633), a system was disclosed for the storage of direct current electrical energy produced by solar cells. This system is rather inefficient for several reasons. In the first place, solar cells only operate during daytime hours when the sun shines and, even during such operation, are only about sixty-percent efficient. In the second place, because the direct current electrical energy is discontinuously delivered to the superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) device, the amount of energy required to cool the SMES when it is not receiving electrical energy from the solar cells is not productively used.
It is an object of this invention to provide an electrical energy generation and storage system which produces electrical energy at an efficiency in excess of eighty percent.
It is another object of this invention to provide an electrical energy generation and storage system which continuously delivers electrical energy to either a load and/or an SMES storage device.